Klinger now 'ramping up' US rubber-coated-metal plant

Sidney, Ohio – Klinger is ramping up production at a new facility for the manufacture of rubber-coated metal (RCM) products in the US, the Austria-headquartered group reported 2 Jan.

An official opening ceremony for the Klinger RCM USA facility was held on 15 May 2024 – about 18 months after groundbreaking on the 25,000-square-foot addition to the Klinger Thermoseal site.

The Klinger RCM USA team is “now ramping up production in phases, performing trial runs to ensure that each step of this specialised process performs flawlessly,” said the group’s latest release.

Polystrat-branded rubber-coated steel from the unit is used in brake shims and gaskets for automotive, heavy-duty/off-road vehicles, compressors and industrial applications.

Klinger has been producing Polystrat in Ningbo, China since 2018 under a partnership with Sinyuan Industry Group: duplicating a manufacturing process already used in Switzerland.

The Ningbo team, it said, played a “pivotal role” in the design, construction and installation of production equipment at the US plant, with additional expertise provided by Klinger Switzerland.

The Swiss and Ningbo teams “have been invaluable in shortening the learning curve," according to David Schweiger, general manager of Klinger RCM USA.

Continued Schweiger: “We've been doing a lot to globalise operations, so when material comes off the machine in Asia, Europe, or the US, it's exactly the same.

“It's a big hurdle in the automotive industry... If it's not exactly the same, the customer has to retest it, and retesting is very, very expensive.”